BOMBER AT BUFFET
A SUICIDE bomber queued patiently at a hotel breakfast buffet yesterday morning before calmly detonating his vest, killing many guests.
The horrific attack at the Cinnamon Grand hotel was one of eight bombings in Sri Lanka.
A manager at the plush hotel in central Colombo said the terrorist set off the explosion in the packed Taprobane restaurant at 8.30am.
The bomber had earlier checked in under a false name, claiming to be on a business trip.
The manager, who asked not to be identified, said the attacker registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.
Yesterday morning, he was about to be shown to a table when he set off the explosives strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.
The manager said: “There was utter chaos. It was 8.30am and very busy. There were many families around.
“He came up to the top of the queue and then set off the blast. One of our managers, who was welcoming guests, was among those killed instantly.”
British guest Julian Emmanuel, from Surrey, had been staying at the hotel with his family while on holiday in Sri Lanka.
Dr Emmanuel said: “We were in our room and heard a large explosion. It woke us up.
“There were ambulances, fire crews, police sirens. I came out of the room to see what was happening and we were ushered downstairs.
“We were told there had been a bomb and staff said some people were killed. One member of staff told me it was a suicide bomber.”
The 501-room Cinnamon Grand is popular with the business community from the UK, the US and mainland Europe.
It says on its website: “Let the opulence of our meeting rooms and conference halls seep into flourishing work partnerships. Raise a toast to all the success at our plush restaurants and taste jubilance like never before.” The rooms at “Colombo’s most lavish business hotel”, start at £125 a night. There was further carnage at the nearby Shangri-La hotel, where a second-floor restaurant was gutted. Kieran Arasaratnam, a professor at Imperial College Business School in London, was staying there during a visit to help launch a social enterprise.
He was in his room when he heard a sound “like thunder”.
He said he started “running for his life” from the 18th floor down to the ground floor.
“Everyone started to panic – it was total chaos,” he said. “I looked to the room on the right and there was blood everywhere.
“Everyone was running and a lot of people just didn’t know what was going on. People had blood on their shirts and there was someone carrying a girl to the ambulance.
“The walls and the floor were covered in blood.”
Kieran, 41, said that he might have been caught up in the blast himself if he had not delayed going down to breakfast.
He told how he left his room about the time when the explosions, at hotels and churches, were reported to have occurred. He
He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast... one manager was killed EMPLOYEE AT THE CINNAMON GRAND, WHICH WAS BOMBED
said: “Something distracted me. I went back to the room to grab my debit card, and I opened the curtain and switched off the ‘do not disturb’ sign... and a big blast went off.”
He then rushed to a nearby emergency shelter and said he could “smell blood everywhere”, with people injured in the blast needing treatment and searching for family members.
He said: “It was awful seeing kids carried off covered in blood. I left Sri Lanka 30 years ago as a refugee and never thought I had to see this again.”
British expat John Tyler was in the capital visiting his brother Robert when the devices went off.
They were going for a drive on the seafront, near the five-star Kingsbury hotel, which was also attacked.
John said: “We heard a bang or two and didn’t think much of it. Then we saw lots of people on their phones; ambulances.
“We got to the Kingsbury, saw the glass and assumed there was an explosion in the kitchen.”
Robert said they were about 500 metres from the Cinnamon Grand.
“There was a bit of smoke”, he said, adding: “We were just on our way for a coffee.
“We saw people outside the ShangriLa on the lawn and thought at first it could be a fire drill.”
Meanwhile, holidaymaker Simon Whitmarsh, 55, a retired doctor from Wales, was cycling near the city of Batticaloa on the island’s eastern coast when a blast ripped through a church as worshippers gathered for services. The former consultant paediatrician was desperate to help so volunteered at the local hospital. “By that stage, they had activated emergency protocols,” he said. “The hospital was heavily guarded by the army, who were stopping most people going in. “All the streets around it were closed. It seemed very well organised.
“All I did was find someone senior to see if I could help.”
He said that the nationwide curfew imposed by the Sri Lankan authorities had last night emptied the streets.
He added: “Now it’s curfew, there’s nothing. ‘Stay indoors’, is the message.”
Following the blasts, armed officers from the country’s elite paramilitary Special Task Force raided a house in the Orugodawatta area of Colombo.
Eight people were arrested, while three police officers were killed during the operation.
The country’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, 70, said: “So far, the names that have come up are local.”